Marauders and the Philosopher's Stone
by My-Life-My-Way
Summary: Remus Lupin finds a mysterious book in the library one afternoon,the kicker? it isn't published for another 20 years. Inside a letter instructing him to read the book along with James Potter, Sirius Black and Lily Evans. What will they uncover?
1. 1997?

I do not own anything you recognise, that belongs solely to J.K. Rowling.

I know this type of story is practically done to death but I love the Marauders and think it would be funny for them to read the Harry Potter series, this is set when Lily is starting to realise her feelings for James so here we go.

Please, please review.  
>_<p>

"Are you sure we should be doing this Mione" Ron asked for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last twenty minutes.

"Honestly Ronald, how many times do you have to ask? We all agreed, so many people died in the war, if we go back we might be able to change that." Hermione was clearly exasperated by this conversation. Life had finally started to get back to normal after the war, the physical scars were healed but the physiological scars ... well they would never heal. It was this pain that had inspired Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny to write these books. The books that detailed Harry's seven years at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron wanted to change the past but Hermione and Ginny just wanted to give Lily and James Potter a chance to know what an amazing person their son was.

"So what happens now is the four of us do the enchantments and we will be brought back to this precise spot only in 1977, we then wait till James, Sirius or Remus show up and place the book on a shelf were they are looking , alright?"

"Alright Gin, we caught on the first ten times you told us, I mean I know Ron isn't exactly the fastest broom in the shed but come on! We got it."  
>"HEY!"<br>"Alright, alright come on. Professor McGonagall said for us to be as quick as possible so that the students don't see us, in case you forgot what we're attempting to do I illegal!"  
>"Okay, let's do this then"<br>_

Remus Lupin walked into the library the first day of winter break, Peter had gone home for the holidays and James and Sirius were out on the grounds having a snowball fight. It was too soon after the full moon for him to be involved in any physical activity so the library seemed like the obvious choice, the only person who would have been there is Lily and despite everything between her and James and their weird sort of relationship, they were friends, even though she knew about his "Furry Little Problem".

'Well I might as well read the The Tales of the Beetle and the Bard again, I'm not much in the mood for reading a textbook, something simple that doesn't involve school. What in the name of Merlin? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Potter? As in James? The kid on the front does look a lot like him?

"**Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by a beetle-eyed giant of a man, enrols at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The reason: HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!"**

'Published in 1997, are you kidding me? A book from the future and about a relative of James' no less. And Sirius says there's nothing interesting in the library."

With that Remus took off running from the library, he had to find James and Sirius. This was too big an opportunity to see what life was like for them all in the future.

"JAMES, SIRIUS! Hmph, throw one more snowball at me and it will be the last thing you do with that arm!"  
>"Well somebody's not in a very good mood today. Come here and tell Uncle Sirius all about it"<br>"Sirius cut the crap; look what I found in the library. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! It was published in 1997."  
>"But it's only 77 now?"<br>"Really Padfoot? We had no idea. Let's see it. Recon it's a relative of mine?"  
>"I think it must be, how many wizarding families with the name Pot"<br>"OOOH, there's a letter inside it"

Dear James, Sirius and Remus

We have written these books and sent them to you in order to show you the future and hopefully as a result change it. The society we currently live in has been through a lot, if you think times are tough now just wait. Many people will never heal. We do not demand that you read these books but if you do indeed choose to, we then request that you also invite Lily Evans to read with you but under no circumstances are you to allow Peter Pettigrew to read. We realise that we keep referring to books plural and yet you only have one. There are seven books in total, one for each year Harry is at Hogwarts. The reasoning behind us sending these books will become clear as you read but you must not jump to conclusions until you have finished the book as there are many surprises.

HJP, RBW, HJG, GMWP.

"Well we're reading it right? I mean it's a book from the future, it could possibly be about a relative of mine and an excuse for me to spend time with Lily. PLEASE!"  
>"Of course we are, right Moony?"<br>Remus gave them a look that clearly said what the hell do you think?  
>"Right well I think we should keep this a secret so why don't you too head up to the room of requirement and I'll go get Lily?"<br>_

Twenty minutes later James entered the Room of Requirement with Lily at his side.

"So what were going to read about one of James' relatives huh? Well it beats sitting around the castle doing nothing all break."

This statement was met with shocked stares from two of the three boys in the room.

"What?"  
>"You called him James!"<br>"Yes well ... who wants to read first."  
>"Well as I found it, I think I should do first" started Remus, trying to refocus the stares currently on Lily. Lily hadn't talked about it but he knew that her feelings towards James had been changing, she was starting to have feelings different from hate but equally as passionate it you get the drift. He was just hoping this might push them together even more.<p> 


	2. The Boy Who Lived

I do not own anything you recognise, that belongs solely to J.K. Rowling.

I know this type of story is practically done to death but I love the Marauders and think it would be funny for them to read the Harry Potter series, this is set when Lily is starting to realise her feelings for James so here we go.

Please, please review.

"Alright everybody ready?"  
>"Yes Moony just read already" the Marauders and Lily were in a room with a high ceiling, I huge fire and lots of red and gold seats and furniture such as couches and bean bag chairs.<br>"touchy" Remus teased but started to read none the less.

**THE BOY WHO LIVED.**

"The boy who lived ohh intrigue already and we haven't even read the first line" Sirius said bouncing on his seat.  
>"Sirius are you going to be like this the entire time we read, cause ill likely end up hexing you" Lily replied in an amused tone. Honestly what was wrong with her, last month she hated these boys, now she was joking around with them.<br>"Shush Moony's reading"****

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"Boring!"

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.****  
><strong>

"Oh, of course not"  
>"PADFOOT!"<br>"Sorry?"

******Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.**

Sirius gave Lily a confused look "Drills?  
>"Umm pieces of metal muggles use to make holes."<p>

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. **

'Mrs Dursley, sounds a lot like Petunia. But no that can't be right, what would Petunia be doing in a book about one of James' relatives. Unless, no that can't be right. There's no way something happens between me and James, I mean ... could it.'

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley **

"Dudley? Dudley Dursley? Really?"

**and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

******The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"Hey whats wrong with the Potters, were brilliant!" James defended  
>"Yea, they're a little full of themselves but other than that." Sirius teased<br>"Are not"  
>"Are too"<br>"Not"  
>"Too"<br>"Not"  
>"Too"<br>"Not"  
>"SHUT UP! Why am I friends with you two?"<br>"Because we're adorable" James and Sirius sang together.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister,**

Lily sighed "Sounds just like me and Petunia"  
>James smiled at her apologetically "I'm sorry"<br>"It's fine, I should be used to it, it just hurts a little."

**because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"What makes them think I want my son mixing with a child like Dudley!"  
>"How do you know he's your son?"<br>"I just do is all."  
><strong><br>****When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, **

"Most boring why would anyone pick out their most boring tie." Asked Remus incredulously  
>"Because he's a stooge, probably doesn't approve of imagination either" James joked.<p>

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"Brat"

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.******

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs.****Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed,****because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. **

"Wow this kid makes Reg look like a baby angel"

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.******

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar, a cat reading a map. **

"Minnie!" Sirius shouted gleefully  
>"You don't know it's her!" said James<br>"Bet you 10 galleons"  
>"You're on."<br>"Easiest money I've ever made"

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen, when he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of. It must have been a trick of the light.**

"Why must they insist on ignoring magic?"  
>"They fear what they don't understand, that's why me and Tuney have the relationship we do. A combination of a fear and jealousy"<p>

**Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"But Minnie does!"

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"Oh yes, what a thrilling day that will be. Can't you just see that now, it's like a dream come true!"  
>"Sirius, we are never going to get through this book if you keep interrupting!"<br>"Sorry Petal"  
><strong><br>****But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"What wrong with that?"  
>"Muggles aren't used to seeing people in cloaks, Prongs." Remus replied with what was clearly practiced patience"<p>

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. **

"For them to be in large groups, in public, in cloaks, something big must have happened. We're not usually this careless."

**They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something...**

"Collecting?" the three boys turned to Lily looking for a explaination.  
>"Umm, sometimes Muggles go out with buckets and try to collect money for different charities, sometimes they dress up in weird cloths so that people will notice them." Lily tried to explain, it seemed to placate the boys no matter how vague an explanation it was.<strong><strong>

**yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr.****Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.******

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open- mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"Well at least he has a hobby."  
>"He's a horrible man, who enjoys shouting at other people? It's just mean, people like him make me sick."<p>

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"As if he need more to eat, the whale!" Surprisingly this came from Lily, the boys shared a look but thought it best not to comment.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.******

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their son, Harry" Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"What about my son and wife? What's happened? What could we have done that people are risking exposure?" James was starting to panic, he had a bad feeling about this.  
>"Prongs mate. If you'd shut up and let me read then we might be able to find out."<p>

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.******

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid. **

"Wow, that must be a change. Bet his brain has never been this taxed."  
>"Ugh Lily" James started timidly "You don't really like this Dursley much do you?"<br>"He just seems like a horrid man."  
>"Yea, he is a toerag. I'm with ya Petal"<p>

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. **

"He doesn't even know his nephews name!"

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"I would never name my son Harvey or Harold!"

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister.**

"Whipped"

**He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...******

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.******

**"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

A deafening science followed. Everyone sat stunned, nobody knew what to say. James was the first to speak up "Did I hear you right?" Remus just nodded. "HELL YEA! MOLDYSHORTS IS GONE! WHOOOOO!" Sirius effectively snapped them all out of their shock. "YES! OH YEA, OH YEA, OH YEA!" Lily jumped up and started doing a happy dance, it took all of two seconds for the boys to join in.

It took them ten minutes for them to calm down enough for Remus to continue reading.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"His arms fit?"  
><strong><br>****Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. **

"It's a non-magical person."  
>"Yes Padfoot, we know."<p>

**He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"Like I said"  
>"Will you stop interrupting, all of you!" Remus was getting tired of the interruptions.<br>"Sorry" they all said collectively  
><strong><br>****As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.******

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"That's so McGonagall, Moony pay up"  
>"We don't know for certain yet." Remus replied, 'I really don't want to give him the money. Please don't let this be McGonagall.'<p>

**Was this normal cat behavior. Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

"Yet again, whipped"****

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Shan't!"). **

"Ugh I hate this kid already, he reminds me of Reg. You know his first work was pure. Pureblood git!" Sirius snapped, if he had one sore point it was his family.  
>"You realise that we're purebloods too right?" James asked as though he was speaking to a two year old.<br>"Yes Prongsie, but me and you, we're bloodtraitors." Sirius smirked proudly.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news: "And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin.******

**"Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim." "Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early - it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight." **

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain. Owls flying by daylight. Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place. And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...**

"Guess he's not as stupid as he looks"  
>"You don't know what he looks like"<br>"You know what I mean Moony!"****

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you."**

Lily gasped and stared at the book with wide eyes. "What? Lily, what's wrong?" James asked getting worried she was sitting there still as a statue. "My sister." She spoke not moving her eyes form the book, now it was time for Sirius and Remus to worry. "Love what about your sister?" Sirius asked this was the most serious (no pun intended) he had been sense they started.  
>"Her name is Petunia, and her long term boyfriend, I'm ninety percent certain his name is Dursley."<br>"I MARRY LILY EVANS! This is the best day anyone will ever have!" James was jumping up and down excited.  
>"CONGRATULATIONS!" Remus and Sirius shouted gleefully, thoroughly relieved that they would no longer have to partake in his "Make Lily Evans love me" schemes.<br>"Oh really the best day ever? Better than our Wedding day? Or the day our son is born?" Lily mocked.  
>"Well I ..." But Lily just cut him off by motioning for Remus to continue reading.<p>

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

"Of course she does."  
><strong><br>****"No," she said sharply. "Why." "Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..." "So." snapped Mrs. Dursley.******

**"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd." **

"Her crowd?"  
>"Wizards, it's what she calls us. Merlin forbid she treat us like humans, we're not a different species."<p>

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he." "I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.******

**"What's his name again. Howard, isn't it." "Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"I like that name! It's so much better than Dudley. Who is she to talk about names when she has named her son Dudley Dursley." Lily started ranting.  
>"Lily, love" he tentatively reached out a hand to rub her arm and for the first time she didn't flinch away from her touch. "Harry doesn't have to met her if you don't want him to and if you do there's still time to change you relationship with her."<br>"I don't want to change my relationship with her she's done too many things I can't forgive but I still love her and she doesn't have to take out whatever she has against me on my son."

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree." He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed.******

**While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.**

"It's so McGonagall"  
>"Not necessarily!"<br>"Yes necessarily!"****

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.******

**Was he imagining things. Could all this have anything to do with the Potters. If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"Yes well me and Lily don't want to be related to you either!"****

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs.****Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind...**

Lily was glaring at the book by this point.

**He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on - he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect them...******

**How very wrong he was.******

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.******

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.******

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots.****His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. **

"Dumbles!" Sirius shouted attempting to defuse the tension coming from Lily, it worked and she broke out into a small fit of giggles.

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"Like I said." Sirius sang.  
>"Yes we all knew it was Dumbledore Padfoot."<br>**  
><strong>**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. **

"He probably did, but just didn't care." Lily corrected the book.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known." **

Sirius turned to Remus with his signature I told you so look.

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street**

"I want one!"

**were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.******

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall." **

"YES! PAY UP MOONY!"  
>Remus sighed and begrudgingly handed over the 10 galleons.<p>

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.******

**"How did you know it was me." she asked.******

**"My dear Professor, I 've never seen a cat sit so stiffly." "You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"All day? Why was she there all day? Why was she there at all? James what's happened to us?" Lily was pacing panicking. James shot a desperate glance at Remus. He motioned for him to help her.

James stopped her pacing with an embrace, and surprising herself and everyone else in the room she leaned into it and hugged him back. Shell-shocked and not knowing what to do next he motioned for Remus to continue.  
><strong><br>****"All day. When you could have been celebrating. I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here." Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.******

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently.**

"**Bet our party's the best, because let's face it the Marauders always throw" Sirius was cut off by Lily's glare. 'Gives a whole new meaning the term if looks could kill.' ******

**"You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. **

"Leave Diggle alone! I like him."  
>"He's a thief, of course you like him."<p>

**He never had much sense." "You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years." "I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors." **

"I know everyone's excited, but they really should be more carefull."  
>"You're no fun, people just want to celebrate Moony. You heard Dumbles, no fun for eleven years. Thank Merlin we're in Hogwarts, I think I'd die if I had no one to prank. DIE!" Sirius chastised in his usual over dramatic mood. Making it into a joke as per usual.<p>

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore." "It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop." **

"A what?"

"A type of muggle sweet."

**"A what." "A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of" "No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -" **

"Yes, now we're going to find out what happened to him." All the teens were sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what was the ultimate downfall of Voldemort.

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name. All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.**

"I say Voldemort."  
>"Me too"<br>"Me too"  
>"Me too"<strong><strong>

**"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of." "You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Only because they're dark and he's too noble to use them."

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them." **

"Wow Lils you think like McGonagall. Creepy."

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." **

"Ooh, I think I just threw up a little." Remus said turning a little green.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying. About why he's disappeared. About what finally stopped him." It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. **

"Ohh the stare, I hate the stare."  
>"Yea it's like she's seeing right down into your soul, and can tell if you're lying or not"<br>"Well not of the time you are lying, are you not?" Lily raised an eyebrow.

**It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.******

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. **

James turned ghostly pale, "Godric's Hollow? My family's from Godric's Hollow?" He turned to Lily to find her staring at the book with wide eyes.

**He went to find the Potters. **

"I'm really not liking this." Sirius was sitting still as a statue.

**The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead. " Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

Everyone sat silent in shock, no one meting each other's gazes. Nobody knew what to say. Slowly they turned to look at Lily and James, to see their responses. They were staring at each other, Lily was the first to speak in a small voice "I can't believe we're going to die in four years, we'll only be 21."

She flung her arms around James and buried her face in his neck, while breaking down in tears. James slowly stroked her hair while trying to make console her. "Shush love, don't cry. I hate to see you upset." James didn't know how he was feeling, he just wanted to make sure that Lily was okay. She was more important than he was. Sirius and Remus didn't know what to say James was their brother and they had gotten a lot closer to Lily this year, since she had loosened up a bit and James had deflated his head. ****

**"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it...****Oh, Albus..." **

" Nice to know she cares." Sirius said trying to defuse the tension in the room though his heart wasn't in it, he was still stuck on the fact that in four years his brother for the past 7 years would be dead, along with lily who he had really grown to care about.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.******

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all.******

**They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. **

"WHAT! HE BETTER NOT HAVE HURT OUR SON! MY BABY, HOW DARE HE! OH HE'S REALLY TOUGH ISNT HE, HURTING A BABY. James!"  
>James spoke in a low voice that was eerily calm "We are going to change this, I will not allow this, this thing to hurt you or our son. If it is the last thing I do I will protect you."<p>

**But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone.**

"My son defeated Voldemort. MY son defeated Voldemort. MY SON DEFEATED VOLDEMORT!"James started to happy dance around the room, Sirius and Remus joined in while Lily dried her eyes and began to laugh at their antics. After about 5 minutes they finally calmed down enough to continue reading.****

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.******

**"It's - it's true." faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy.**

"I wonder why?"  
>"Because he's my son, he's awesome."<br>**  
><strong>**It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive." "We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know." **

"Which means he has a pretty good idea."

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch.******

**It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way." "Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places." "I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"WHAT, NO NOT MY SISTER! SHE WILL NOT TREAT HIM RIGHT, GIVE HIM TO SISIUS, HE'S HIS GODFATHER! GIVE HIM TO ANYONE ELSE!"  
>"Why don't you want him to go to your sister?"<br>"I'm his Godfather?"  
>"You saw the way she talked about me James, imagine how she will treat Harry and Sirius of course you're the godfather, who else?"<br>"YES!, thank you Petal" Sirius jumped on her "thank you, thank you, thank you."  
>"Padfoot! Really not the time!" James chuckled at his friends antics. He always knew that Sirius would be his kid godfather but he was still upset that Lily would die and he would never be able to see his son grow up.<p>

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here." cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four.******

**"Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets.**

"YES, Minnie talk sense into him! Send him to live with me, I'd treat him like he was my own kid."  
><strong><br>****Harry Potter come and live here!" "It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"A letter, he thinks he can explain all this in a letter. I'll be shocked if she doesn't shred it!"

**"A letter." repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter. These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!" "Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! **

"He has a point, I hate it but he has a point."

**Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it." Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, 2and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore." She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"He better not be, I understand that he has the best intentions in giving Harry to your sister but so help me Merlin if he has Harry in that cloak I'll kill the old kook."****

**"Hagrid's bringing him." "You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this." **

"I would trust Hagrid with my life" the four teens said at once. They then shared a look then burst out laughing.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.******

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that." A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"A flying motorcycle? I want one! I bet its mine!"  
>"Sirius, no one's going to take that bet. No one else is crazy enough to own a flying motorcycle."<br>"It's not crazy, it's ... unique?"  
>"whatever Pads"<strong><strong>

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"Harry" Lily gushed.****

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle." "Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sit," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. **

"YES!"  
>"Sirius I'm not kidding, if you don't stop talking I'm going to hex you into next week."<br>"Shutting up!"

**I've got him, sir." "No problems, were there." "No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol." Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair **

"Oh great his father's hair."  
>"HEY! You interrupted!"<br>"SIRIUS!"  
>"Shutting."<p>

**over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.******

**"Is that where -." whispered Professor McGonagall.******

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever." "Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore." "Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. **

"Ugh, okay then. That's good to know."

**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with." Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.******

**"Could I - could I say good-bye to him, sir." asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"OI! I resent that."****

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!" "S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -" **

"Awk, we have to go visit him, I haven't been to see him in a while. I forgot how sweet he is."

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, **

"And the Minnie we know and love is back."

**patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

The all looked saddened at this it wasn't normal, Dumbledore was always so happy. Even when you were in trouble, you couldn't feel resentful towards him with that glint in his eyes.****

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations." "Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir." Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.******

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.******

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.******

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"That's it. Who wants to read next?"  
>"I will, but first, Lily are you okay?" Lily was smiling, it was a sharp contrast as to how she was earlier.<br>"Yea it's just – we have a son James. A little baby boy, a cute, tiny little person and he's ours." Lily was beaming at him in a way that made his heart flutter. "I mean I hate the fact that we're dead and we don't get to watch him grow up. But he's ours."  
>"I know how you feel, he's ours I'm going to be a father. I can't wait to meet him. And listen now might not be the best time to ask this but do you want to go to the next Hogsmeade weekend with me?" "yes James, ill go with you" Lily laughed at his asking now, of all times.<p>

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you made my day. Please review again. Also tell me when you want Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny to come in, mind they don't all have to come in at the same time.


	3. The Vanishing Glass

I don't own anything you recognise, that solely belongs to J.K Rowling. Please Review. I love you all.

"So, who wants to read next?" Lily giggled looking into James' eyes. He was still staring down at her incredulously, after seven years she finally agreed to go on a date with him; all it took was a book about the future.

Remus and Sirius watch this exchange but decided not to interrupt; they looked too much like a holiday card for even Sirius to interrupt. They were still pretty shocked that this was a book about the future, even more so their future. They had to change it , James was like their brother and from the looks of things they were going to get a lot closer with Lily. Sirius decided that it was time to interrupt as the atmosphere in the room was getting uncomfortable for him and judging by the look on Remus' face it was for him too.

"Oh Remmi-poo you have the most beautiful eyes did you know?"

"Why Siri-wiri, thank you oh so much for saying so?"

"I know that you two are trying to take a jab at us but frankly, I'm just disturbed that you have pet names for each other."

"And that you're so comfortable in using them. I'm really proud of you two, finally coming out of the closet. Be loud and be proud!" Lily continued. Both boys in question flushed and turned away from each other.

"Wow Lily never knew you had it in you to be this mean."

"Well I guess you never knew me that well did you." Sirius stuck his tongue out at her childishly and sat back down moodily.

"MOONY. READ. NOW!"

Remus chuckled at his friends child like antics, grabbed the book and sat down to read.

"Yes dear."

"Moony, not funny."

"Yes dear."

"Just read!"

Remus snickered but started to read none the less.

**THE VANISHING GLASS.**

"The vanishing glass? What's the vanishing glass?" Sirius asked immediately. Apparently forgetting all his previous irritation with his friends.

"I don't know? A piece of glass that vanished? I'm just spit balling here."

"Oh, shut up!"

"In all seriousness – don't say it Sirius" Lily said noticing him open his mouth to make a remark. "It sounds like his accidental magic."

"To make something vanish he must be pretty powerful."

"Well what do you expect Moony, he is my son."

Lily rolled her eyes and muttered "conceited prick" under her mouth which no one but Remus picked up on. He smirked and continued to read.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. **

"Well, shocker there." Lily snorted. The three boys turned to look at her with puzzled expressions. "Well Petunia is very particular, she likes things how she likes things. She would most likely never redecorate that house unless she's forced to. Or unless it's my room, in which case she redecorates my room and reorganises my stuff every term so that when I get home, I can't find a thing"

By the time she was done her mini rant that three boys were looking at her with very odd expressions on their faces. "Is she really that bad to you?"

"Oh, she's got better. She used to throw my stuff out, until my parents caught on. Look, forget it, Remus just continue."

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.**

"I'd place money on the fact that there are no photos of Harry" James spat bitterly.

**Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets - but Dudley Dursley **

"Tehe."

"Padfoot, did you just tehe?"

"What Prongs? You cannot tell me that you don't think that is a funny name?" James just turned around and ignored him. He couldn't argue that and Sirius knew it.

"Continue Remus." Remus just rolled his eyes at his idiotic friends.

**was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.**

"Something tells me he's a spoilt brat." Sirius interrupted bitterly.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, there are obviously lots of pictures of him, many include him and his parents "bonding" I recognise the signs, Reg was the same."

The other three teens in the room shared awkward glances, they all knew that Sirius had a terrible relationship with his family. They also knew that there was nothing they could say or do to make him feel better; he would snap himself out of it eventually and this being Sirius it would be pretty soon. He was just too happy a person to stay sad for too long.

**The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"I wish there wasn't."

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!" Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"Oh, my poor boy. That's how she wakes me up during the holidays. I would not wish that on my worst enemy." Lily said shuddering

"Really? Recon you could record it next time you're home and we could play it loudly in the Slytherin dorms early in the morning?" Sirius asked hopefully feeling a prank coming on.

"Or we could set off fireworks in their common room at like five in the morning." James countered, they hadn't pulled a prank so far these holidays because there were even less people than usual staying behind for Christmas this year, Peter went home as well this year, his mother wanted him to spend the holidays with her. something he was not all together thrilled about.

**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"He's remembering my bike! You didn't dream about it, you were actually on it. Merlin I love that bike!"

"Sirius you don't own that bike yet."

"Doesn't matter, it's still mine. MY BIKE! MINE!"

"Please Lils don't get him started. He can argue any point and make you agree with him."

"That may work with you weak minded people but I can be terribly stubborn."

"Merlin do I know it."

**His aunt was back outside the door.******

**"Are you up yet." she demanded.******

**"Nearly," said Harry.******

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." Harry groaned.**

"Cook? SHE'S MAKING MY 10 YEAR OLD COOK!"

"That can't ba safe can it, I mean we still don't let Padfoot cook."

"Ye – wait – Moony!" Remus snickered at his friend then turned to look at James who was rubbing circles on Lily's back, trying to calm her down. She on the other hand was muttering about neglect and child labour.

**"What did you say." his aunt snapped through the door.**

"NOTHING!" the four teens shouted simultaneously then shared looks and burst out laughing.

**"Nothing, nothing..." Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten. Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, **

James shuddered "What don't tell me the infamous James Potter afraid of spiders?"

"I may have had a run in with one of Hagrid's pets."

Lily moved so that she was even closer, put her arms around him and snuggled into his side "Don't worry James, I'll protect you from the big bad spiders"

James fake glared at her but he couldn't keep the grin from his proximity to Lily off his face. "Ugh, keep the couplely things to yourself. Me no want to see that." Sirius stated pointedly looking in the opposite direction.

**put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept**.

"WHAT! THEY'RE MAKING MY BABY SLEEP UNDER THE STAIRS! I'M GOING TO KILL PETUNIA!"

"THAT HORRID WOMAN AND THE WHALE HAVE _MY_ SON SLEEPING WHERE! LILY I'M GOING TO KILL YOUR SISTER!"

James and Lily shouted at the same time as Remus and Sirius jumped up and started shouting curses at the book. This continued for 5 minutes until they had all vented their frustration.

When they had all calmed down Remus continued.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. **

"I never thought I'd see the day where a child got more presents than Reg.

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

"A bike? Wouldn't that require doing exercise?"

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. **

"He better not punch Harry!"

**Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

James swore and Sirius laughed "Just like his father." James laughed, "Quick reflexes good for Quidditch."

Lily laughed Humourlessly "Unless he has my Quidditch skills." James turned to her suddenly "Don't even joke about that. Moony continue."

"Starting to feel like a tape player. Honestly; pause – start – pause –start."

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, **

The Marauders growled at this.

**but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. **

"They don't even buy him his own clothes" Lily hissed.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, **

"He's a mini prongs, he's a , a, a, PRONGSLET!"

"Prongslet?"

"Yup" Sirius said popping the "p"

**and bright green eyes. **

"He has Lily's eyes" James said dreamily looking at Lily with a love sick look on his face. Lily flushed but didn't break eye contact. Slowly they leaned in and their lips met. What started out tender gradually heated up more and more.

"Oi! None of that. I'm not into that form of entertainment!" Sirius started, waving his hands dramatically in a theatrical attempt to shield his eyes. Remus snickered as James and Lily broke apart flushing. James shot a murderess look at his two best friends while Lily giggled.

"Start tape player!"

Remus snickered but read none the less.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. **

"I can't kill him, he's just a kid. I can't kill him, he's just a kid." James chanted.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt ****Petunia was how he had gotten it. **

Lily sighed "She won't tell him the truth."

"Why not?"

"It would mean telling him about the wizarding world."

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. **

"A car crash? A bloody car crash? She told him we died in a car crash? Not even that we were murdered by a muggle killer! I'm going to kill her!"

**"And don't ask questions." Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"What a boring life! No questions, I'd die."

"Yes Paddy, we know you would be even more stupid!"

"I take offence"

"Good for you Pads."

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.******

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Not going to work!" James sang. "It grows that way" He said matter – of – factly, while nodding his head.

"What?" Lily asked incredulously, but Sirius was the one that that answered "It's the curse of the Potter hair, James' dads hair is the exact same."

"Oh my poor boy, you just can't fight genetics" Lily teased.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

"Like I said. They should just accept it, it will save them a lot of time and my son a lot of heart ache"

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"Attractive I'm sure." Moony scoffed.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

The four teens nearly fell off their seats laughing and clutching their sides. "Okay, your son has the best of _both _your sense of humours and I love him for it." Sirius choked out.

"That's my boy." James said proudly.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents.**

"He counts them" Remus asked awestruck.

"Brat"

**His face fell.**

"Oh Merlin"

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year." **

"Oh the poor deprived child." James taunted, then added bitterly "Bet Harry doesn't get anything."

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy." "All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

"I can't believe their not reprimanding him for acting this way, they're going to turn their child into a monster."

"If I'm not mistaken he already is Petal."

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"Smart kid, be careful of the food. A boy after my own heart."

"He's going to throw a tantrum because he got 37 presents? Seriously?" she then turned to Sirius "Don't."

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin. Two more presents. Is that all right''**

"Don't encourage him!" Lily chastised

"Lily, you are reprimanding a book. You're not really in a position to talk."

"Oh shut up Remus, I thought you were the nice one!"

"Hey! What am I then?" James mocked offended.

"The sexy one." Lily countered innocently. James chuckled,

"Merlin Yea!"

"And me?" Sirius asked bouncing on his chair.

"The annoying one" she deadpanned causing the other two to break out into manly giggles. Sirius just pouted in response.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..." **

"He's even worse at maths than me!"

"And that's saying something" James muttered only allowing Lily to hear who giggled in response.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"UGH, ENOUGH WITH THE NICKNAMES PETUNIA!"

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. **

"Then tossed it aside and opened the next." Remus scoffed

**"All right then." Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"This is actually making me sick; they're encouraging their child to be a snotty little brat." Lily complained.

"Yea, he's going to grow up to take everything for granted." James continued.

"And that's coming from James. The rich boy who gets everything he wants from mummy and daddy." Sirius mocked.

"I don't get EVERYTHING I want." James defended himself, then added sheepishly "I never got the solid gold caldron"

Lily sat forward so that she could look him in the eye. "Just how rich are you James?"

James avoided her gaze, "Well, you see, we ummm - I will never run out of money and neither will Harry ... and perhaps his children as well and a very comfortable life at that."

"Wow, that's just wow." Lily didn't know what to say 'wow I mean I knew he was rich but this is a whole other level!'

"And then there is the second vault with the heirlooms, portraits and furniture" Remus also mocked and Lily quirked an eyebrow at him questioningly.

"Well I guess that's true too." He turned to Lily "Why if you had known that, would you have went out with me sooner?" He teased.

"Is that really what you think of me? I mean do you think I'm that shallow? That I would just go out with you because you are rich? Maybe I made a mistake agreeing to go with you." Lily sat down at the opposite end of the couch from him tearing up a bit.

James shared bewildered looks with the others before turning to Lily. "Lils of course I don't think that I was just teasing you, I know you could care less about how much money I have and that's one of the things I love most about you. I don't believe you would go out with me for my money. I honestly didn't mean it love." James begged.

"I know." Lily said with a big smile on her face. "you're so cute when you're worried"

"YOU WERE JOKING? WHY? THATS MEAN!" James cried while Remus and sirius burst out laughing.

"Yes, what you can joke and I can't? COME ON! That was funny!"

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

"Something tells me these aren't cheap are they" Remus asked, Lily just shook her head in responce.

"Brat"

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"You know Petunia I did give my son a name." Lily scolded. James moved closer to her and put his arm around her.

"Sorry love but that would mean acknowledging that he's a person and on an equal standing with her pig of a son." He spat bitterly.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. **

"What about Harry?"

**Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"That sounds like fun." Sirius snickered.

"Yea, but if he had a good time they likely wouldn't have let him go."

"What do ya mean? Of course they'd let him go, they'll just let him go."

"But they want him to be miserable and I think that outweighs their desire to get rid of him."

"But why?"

"He's my son and he's going to be a wizard. That's why." Lily stated matter-of-factly. The boys gave her sympathetic looks before continuing.

**"Now what." said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. **

"Oh yes he purposefully injured an elderly lady to get out of spending time with her. _HE'S NOT YOUR SON_!"

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again**.

"Harry!" Lily chastised.

"At least he knows he should be sorry." James reasoned.

"You're just saying that because he's just like you!"

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"No, she's worse than Vermin!"

"Who is she?"

"Vermin's sister Talks to me like I'm dirt."

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy." The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"I really love your sister and her family, in case I forget to tell you later." Sirius muttered to lily sarcastically.

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne." "On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.******

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"Sorry mate I don't think that's going to happen."

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"So her usual facial expression." Lily quipped; the boys shot each other looks that were half amused half sad; they had no idea that her relationship with her sister was so bad.

**"And come back and find the house in ruins." she snarled.******

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"You should."

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "...****and leave him in the car..." **

"He's not a dog Petunia!"

"HEY! There is nothing wrong with dogs."

"I know Sirius, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Sorry?"

"What? You didn't know I knew?"

"NO!" The three boys shouted in sync.

"Well then ... Surprise!"

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone..." Dudley began to cry loudly. **

**In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Delightful, that boy is"

**"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

There was silence for all of a second before they all fell to the ground laughing. When they had all calmed down they thought the heard snickering. But by the time they realised that is wasn't one of them it had stopped.

James and Sirius jumped up and pointed their wands in the general direction of the noise. "Who's there?"

When they got no reply they slowly sat back down but kept their wand in their hands, still convinced that they had heard something. "Keep reading Moony."

**"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"That pompous, arrogant little prick!" Sirius spat.

"Little?"

"Good point Moony."

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, **

"What is with the names of these kids!"

"Moony, I never!" James teased.

"Well come on! I mean Dudley Dursley and Piers Polkiss, their parents really like alliteration don't they!"

"Wow Moony who knew you were such a grammar nerd." Sirius mocked.

"I – not- just." He just gave up and decided to keep reading. James and Sirius shared triumphant smirks.

**walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. **

"Hate him as well then."

"James you cant hate a child that's not born yet."

"Oh yes I can."

**Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"I bet he did, can't let his friends see him cry."

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. **

"The first time? My baby was never brought to the zoo? Every child should get to go to the zoo and we should be the ones to bring him James! It's not fair, it's not." James stood up to catch Lily in her pacing, pulling her into his chest and wrapping his arms tightly around her tiny frame, whispering reassurances to her while she kept muttering "It's not, it's not."

Sirius and Remus looked at the couple, though they liked Lily they had never understood why James was so determined but looking at them know they could see it. It was natural, they were perfect for each other, they didn't have to work at it. And even though James had been pursuing her for years it wouldn't have worked till now, James had changed this year – he wasn't as big headed as he was in the past. When James had finally got Lily to calm down somewhat, he sat down and pulled Lily onto his lap. She buried her face in his chest and he motioned for Remus to continue.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.******

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, **

"Poor boy, imagine having something that ugly, that close to your face."

**"I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas." **

"He's not being serious is he? He wouldn't really lock him in the closet till Christmas would he?" Sirius said (excuse the pun) seriously.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly.. **

"He's not going to believe you."

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

"Told ya."

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"So, would that be accidental magic?"

"Must be, we would be what ten – eleven? He should be showing signs of accidental magic right?"

"Yes, I guess that's right, I hope nothing dangerous happens to him."

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

"WHAT! HOW DARE SHE TOUCH THE HAIR! IT'S A FAMILY TRAIT." James bellowed.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

"Brat,"

"I really, really hate that kid"

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

"Haha can't mess with the hair."

"He's right it's like a life force of its own" James muttered.

"That means I'll never be able to do anything with it?" Lily asked desperately.

"Nope." James chuckled.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"That's not fair. Petunia saw me do accidental magic! She knows that at that age you can't control it! She's gonna get dead."

"Yea she really is a monster, thank Merlin you got the nice genes Petal."

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) –**

"Sounds – there isn't even a word strong enough."

**- The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. **

"Good boy don't let her walk all over you."

"You know what son; I give you permission to blow up my sister's precious house."

"Lily are you sure you're okay? It isn't like you to be so .. vengeful.

"Whatever she treats my son like dirt, I'm allowed to be pissed off."

"Did Lily Evans, head girl, goody goody and strict rule enforcer just not only encourage vandalism and pranking but also curse."

"Put a sock in it Sirius."

**Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"Thank God."

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

"We've never done that, we've never got up onto the roof. Why haven't we been on the roof?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Never thought of it. Why didn't we think of it? Maybe this book will give us new ideas. We have hit a dry spell and the Slytherins have started moving in packs so we can't even prove them properly, it's getting embarrassing but with the books we can change that." James stated in a tone that was more suited to talking about the weather.

Remus gasped "with the roof we could..."

"And make it so that everyone"

"But do it when the rest of the school"

"Yea maximum impact." Lily watched this exchange with wide eyes, the fact that they could communicate so easily and in a way that no one else would understand spoke to the strength of their friendship. It really was astounding they were more like brothers than friends, which wasn't surprising considering.

James was an only child so his best friends turned into his sera get siblings, Remus though his parents still loved him they were slightly scared of him due to his lycanthropy and were a little distant and Sirius, well he had been an outcast from his family since he was old enough to from his own opinions, he was as good as a person could come (though she would never admit it too his face) and his family, well they were not.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"He flew."

"Apparated"

"Flew"

"Apparated"

"Flew"

"GIVE OVER WHAT DOES IT MATTER HOW HE GOT THERE! HE IS THERE."

"Wow Remus, I thought I was the one with the anger problems. But no matter wither he apparated or flew that's pretty strong accidental magic."

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"Yea that's likely."

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

"He has never been anywhere that wasn't school, the cupboard or 's. Oh my poor baby, he never had a childhood. We should have been there James we should have brought him to the zoo, to the fair, the beach. It's not fair; he never did anything to disserve this."

"I know love, this is not going to happen now. _We _will bring him to the zoo, the beach and the fair, I promise. Harry will grow up happy and loved, okay?" She gave him a watery smile and he motioned for Remus to continue.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. **

"Something tells me he does this a lot."

**He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. **

"Gee, he really seems to really like Harry doesn't he."

**This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"HEY! Motorcycles rock!"

**"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"Hoodlums, I'm not a hoodlum and I own a motorcycle in the future."

"Sirius?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up!"

"Shutting up."

**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." **

"Bad idea kid, he certainly got his father's brains."

"Oi!"

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: **

"Attractive mental image."

**"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"Shut up ya gits"

**I ****know they don't," said Harry. **

"Mine does." Sirius sang

**"It was only a dream." **

"No it wasn't" he continued in the same tone**.**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, **

"Gits!"

**no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"Dangerous ideas? From cartoons? Is she insane millions and millions of muggle children watch cartoons and please I remember before we knew I was a witch me and her used to pretend we were magic. The stinking hypocrite." This chapter was very difficult for Lily to read as it showed her just how much her sister hated her that she would take it out on an innocent child just because he was her son.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. **

"They're not that bad actually."

**It wasn't bad, either, **

Lily smiled at that, maybe her son did take after her in some ways.

**Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

"Hahahaha I love you child, that is gold. Lily's brains and your sense of humour Prongs and the kid is unstoppable."

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. **

Everyone looked saddened at this.

**He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. **

"Delightful, delightful boys."

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, **

"Brat!"

**Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

"Well at least something good came from a Dudley tantrum."

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"Oh Merlin."

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, **

"Reminds me of the Slytherin common room."

"You've been in the Slytherin common room?"

"Continue reading Moony."

**with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. **

"Hope it crushes them."

**Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. **

"Maybe they will bond, you know both being the largest of their kind and all." Remus joked.

**It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can –**

"Big snake."

**- but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"Poor glass."

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.******

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.******

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

"So fat, he can't even walk properly."

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

"It's so sad that the only thing he relate to is a snake."

"Can you imagine, that would be such a sad life."

"My son will not grow up like that, I will not allow that." James muttered darkly.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.******

**It winked.**

"Is that normal snake behaviour."

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"_Don't wink back!" _Lily screeched.

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."**

"He has to just be guessing right? I mean there is no way he can interpret a snakes body language, can he?"

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

"_Don't talk to it!"_

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"It understands him!"

"He's a parselmouth? How can he be, no one in my family is – where did he get it from." James was panicking.

"It'll be okay, so long as no one at Hogwarts finds out."

"Yea because if they do find out they'll think he's the hair of Slytherin."

**"Where do you come from, anyway." Harry asked.**

"Oh I think I'm going to cry!"

"James! Stop being so bloody dramatic!"

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

**"Was it nice there." The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil." As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.**

"What? What happened?"

"If you would let me continue reading Padfoot, we would be able to find out."

**"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

"So it took him like 20 minutes to get there?"

"People were probably running around screaming EARTHQUAKE!"

"Really Padfoot? Fat jokes?"

"Yes sireee"

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. **

"Oi!" Everyone in the room shouted.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. **

"No offence Lily but I kind of want to kill your sister and Dursley just so they can never reproduce."

"Oh, please do."

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened –**

"Oh, this should be good."

**- one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"What, what happened?"

"Sirius!"

"Sorry."

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. **

"Wicked, I love that."

"Best accidental magic ever!"

"Serves that prick right."

"That's my son, he must be really powerful to be able to make something disappear completely."

"That's our boy." James laughed.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

"A rational reaction, I feel like doing that whenever I see the Slytherins."

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo." **

"Well that's just creepy."

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"I bet he was."

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go."**

"Into none being, which is to say everything."

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. **

"Don't bother, she is a nightmare. Hopefully she'll die of shock." Lily spat at the book.

**Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, **

"Pity."

**but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. **

"Wish it had."

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry." **

"IDIOT"

"shut up"

"Nobody likes you" Lily, James and Sirius shouted at the book.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard****- stay - no meals," **

This time it was James who snapped "He better let my so eat or I swear to Merlin, that man is going to meet a painful end." Lily placed a hand on his arm and snuggled into his side, this had the desired effect as it calmed him down.

**before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"Seriously? He gets stressed and starts drinking. He really is a terrible father."

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. **

"He doesn't even own a watch? Even my parents bought me a watch when I was a child."

**He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"Ah a Marauder at heart."

"Oh Merlin, he's just going to be just like his father isn't he."

"Yes he is."

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he ****could remember, **

This made all the teens share sad looks.

**ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. **

Sirius swore at the book at that.

**He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light **

"Green light?" Remus asked like he couldn't believe what he'd just read.

"The Aveda Kadevera? My baby survived the Aveda kadevera? Oh my poor boy!" Lily started getting weepy. In fact none of the boys looked too good either. All the blood appeared to have left Sirius' face.

"H h he remembers it?"

**and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. **

"It's not a car crash Harry, we didn't die in a car crash."

**He couldn't remember his parents at all. **

Lily sobbed into James' shoulder at that.

**His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

"He doesn't even know what we look like." Lily said but it came out muffled due to the fact that her face was buried in James' shirt.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, **

"Why didn't we?" Remus sighed.

**but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. **

Lily hissed at this.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. **

"WIZARDS!"

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. **

I bet she did, Merlin forbid someone should be show an interest in my son."

**A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a**** closer look.**

"They all wanted a closer look at the famous Harry Potter."

"Yea well, the fact that they annoyed Petunia makes it all the better."

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's the end"

"My poor boy's been through so much, it's not fair. This shouldn't have happened to him, he doesn't deserve this. He is a hero, he saved the world, hell I bet he saved the Dursley's life. You know Voldemort has started attacking Muggles."

They heard a shuffling sound from the same corner as before. This time all of them heard it, they jumped up and pointed their wands in the direction of the sound. "Revealio" James cast.

Suddenly sitting in the alcove by the window was a young woman.

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favourited and tracked. I love you all.

****Mikado X Goddess. - Ron and Hermione are 21, Harry is 20 going on 21, Ginny is 19 going on 20. They are all engaged but not married. I think Ginny and Harry get married as Ginny has James when she is 21 where as Hermione has Hugo when she is 25, so that's what I'm going with in my story. ~ thanks for the review – you made my day.

Unkinnh – thank you for the review, I took all your points into concideration.


	4. Who are You?

I don't own anything you recognise, that solely belongs to J.K Rowling. Please Review. I love you all.

HPHPHP

_Suddenly sitting in the alcove by the window was a young woman._

The girl looked to be in her late teens / early twenties. She was petite with flaming red hair that could rival Lily's. She barely came up to Sirius' shoulder (I imagine Sirius about 6,2 / 6,2) with pale skin. She was very pretty it was obvious to anyone who laid eyes on her.

The four teens from the past still had their wands pointed at her, unaware that they too had three wands pointed back at them.

"Who are you?" Remus asked in a polite tone but still had his wand fixed on her throat.

"I won't tell you until you lower your wands, I am not a threat. I haven't drawn my own wand yet have I? If I wanted to hex you I would have while I was invisible. So please, lower the wands and I'll answer any questions you have." The stranger asked with a sharp tone. Slowly Lily lowered her wand, the Marauders shot her a bewildered glance, their wands not wavering.

"I believe her, she hasn't drawn her wand – she could have already killed us while she was invisible and I trust her, though there is no real good reason why but I do."

The three boys lowered their wands, the redhead visibly relaxed. "Thank you." She said to Lily.

"No problem, just don't make me regret it. Now who are you." The stranger sighed then walked around the four very confused teens and sat down on one of the armchairs throwing her legs over arm like she had been doing it for years.

"My name is Ginny Weasley. Anything else?" She asked with an innocent smile on her face.

"I know all the Weasleys, there's no girls let alone one called Ginny." Ginny giggled and shock her head.

"Well I guess you are technically right James, yes I know your name all of them James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Orion Black and Remus John Lupin. Anyhow back to James question, I guess you are right per say as I haven't actually been born yet. Remember the letter from HJP, RBW, HJG and GMW well I'm GMW – Ginny Molly Weasley."

"Wait so you sent us the books?" Remus asked.

"Never mind that Moony" James interrupted "Do you know Harry?"

She smirked at Remus before she replied "We've met." She quoted him. "No, in all honestly yes I do know him, quite well actually." She smiled and James and Lily.

"You would be very proud."

Lily and James beamed and Sirius looked at her inquisitively "If you really are a Weasley name your siblings."

"Sirius!" "Padfoot!"

"it's okay I understand, it's not a safe time. Right let's see, well Bills the oldest and he should be 7, Charlie is next and he should be 5, then Percy and he should be 1, mum is currently pregnant with Fred and George who will be born next year, then Ron who will be born in 1980 and then me, the youngest and the only girl – born in 1981. Happy?"

"Fine you are who you say you are. I apologise."

"No need, I understand. If I were you I probably would have hexed me back into the future. Right well, I didn't mean for you to see me. Not yet anyway so why don't we continue reading. Who wants to go?"

"I will, but first where are me and Moony? Why don't we take Harry?"

Ginny bit her lip before answering 'I really don't want to be the one who tells him he spends 12 years in Azkaban for something he didn't do. I'll wait it out and either Harry can tell him or he'll find out in the third book.' "It's in the third book, you can find out then. It tells the story far better than I ever could so – begin."

Sirius looked annoyed but decided not to argue.

**THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE. **

**HPHPHP**

You're getting two chapters in one night but this one is obscenely short. I probably will not get another chapter poster until the weekend as I start back to school tomorrow. I will try to update every weekend but I make no promises. Sometimes you may get more than one a week other weeks I may not update – I am sorry for this inconvenience, truly I am. Please bare with me.

Becca'Babezz – thank you so much you have no idea how much that means to me. I plan on doing all seven books except the epilogue which I have another idea for. But I have no idea how long my attention span will last, I will definitely finish this book though because I hate when people end storeys half way through.

Mikado X Goddess – you are my new favourite person. I love the fact that you keep reviewing. You make me happy. Thank you so much for the ages and info like that it really helps. I'm going to have them all engaged at this point but I'll probably mention that at some point. This short chapter is for you. You always so lovely to me and help me that I thought I would post more as a thank you. :D

HPHP

By the way I'm on Pottermore. Add me my username is AurorYew212. Add me


	5. Letters From Noone

_Sirius looked annoyed but decided not to argue._

_**THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE. **_

"Letters from no one? How could he be getting letters from no one?"

"Honestly Padfoot, they are obviously from someone, Harry just doesn't know who."

"oh, yea I knew that."

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor **

"Hehe"

**earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. **

"Aww come on, he didn't mean to do it! It not his fault it's in his DNA."

"Petunia you better yourself. This will be your only warning after this I will plot revenge – and Sirius will help!"

"I will?"

"I'm giving you free range on pranks against my sister and her awful family."

"I'm in." With that he pulled out a small black notebook and a quill and sat them beside him ready to make notes.

Ginny's eyes narrowed knowing that there was going to be a lot written in that book, if she didn't hate them so much she'd feel sorry for them "Let's continue shall we?"

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started **

"Anything else Sirius and start making notes."

"Aye, aye captain!"

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, **

"Brat."

**crashed his remote control airplane, **

"Brat."

**and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"Brat."

"He knocked down an old lady on crutches, who in the name of Merlin raised this child? Demonic elders?" Ginny sneered, Harry hadn't told any of them the particulars about his time with the Dursleys, he just said that he had been mistreated and a few of the stories.

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, **

"Just bloody brilliant, they will use my son as a communal punching bag."

"I swear if we do end up dying James, I will come back from the dead and haunt their asses."

**who visited the house every single day. **

"Just great."

**Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, **

"The sound like delightful young men, don't you think Moony."

"Indubitably my dear Padfoot."

**but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. **

"Common sense really."

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.**

Lily and Ginny snarled while Sirius, James and Remus growled like the animals they could turn into.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. **

Lily sighed

**When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. **

"So they only let in spoilt little brats."

**Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"At least he gets away from that kid, I don't want my Godson anywhere near private school snobs!"

"Sirius, you realise this is a private school right?"

"No, it's not! Is it?"

"Yes"

"Well in any case he won't be going to Stonewall, he'll be going to Hogwarts." Remus turned to look and Ginny "Right?" Ginny just motioned to the book, "keep reading."

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice." "No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"Hahaha, Prongs I love your son, he's bloody brilliant."

"I love the fact that he ran before Dudley worked it out. Survival instinct, always good. A sign of a true troublemaker knowing when to flee."

Lily, James and Ginny were too busy laughing to comment.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn 't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats,**

"That's unfortunate." Sirius smirked.

**and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. **

"Don't blame her I wouldn't be either."

**She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"I guess it's better than nothing?" Ginny asked.

"I think I'd prefer nothing actually."

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. **

"Hahaha, that's there uniform? Oh how I would pay for a photo of that!"

"I never thought I'd love our uniform so much!"

"We do, we have a lot of to be thankful for."

"ORANGE KNICKERBOCKERS!"

"I bet Tuney will think that he is the most handsome boy in the world!"

"Handsome? I was thinking most piggish boy in the world, but whatever floats your boat."

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"What kind of later in life training is that? Beating someone when the teachers back, really raising the next generation of saints they are!"

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. **

"Mustn't have a very fulfilling life."

**Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, **

Sirius sniggered.

**he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. **

"Oh Harry, I wouldn't either." Ginny laughed.

**He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

"Know the feeling son."

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. **

"Oh Merlin."

**It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

**"What's this." he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"You know Lily, we really should have raised him better before he died."

"Oh yes, I mean how dare our son ask a simple question."

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

"They wouldn't even buy him a uniform? No offence Mrs Potter but your sister's the devil."

"Please don't call me Mrs Potter, and I know."

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet." **

"Oh, Harry."

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. **

"Don't call my son stupid you hideous cow. Sirius get your book ready, I've got a bad feeling."

**"I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished." **

"I doubt it! How can she not buy him his uniform, it's a public school uniform, how much can it cost! _Sirius!" _There was practically smoke coming out of Lily's ears.

"On it." Sirius began scribbling furiously in his little notebook, when he was done he continued reading.

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. **

"Probably for the best" James sighed, rubbing Lily's arm soothingly.

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High - like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

"Don't worry Harry, you'll be going to Hogwarts and you will get away from those dreadful people."

"Hear, hear!" James, Lily, Sirius and Ginny shouted.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. **

"We get it, it stinks – move on already!"

**Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere,** **on the table**.

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"He's is actually going to make the pig get a meal?"

"It's the apocalypse, run for your lives."

"Protect the children!" All the readers laughed themselves into hysteria.

**"Make Harry get it." "Get the mail, Harry." "Make Dudley get it." "Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley." **

"Way to teach your son manners Dursley."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he grows up to beat on little kids."

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, **

"egh"

**who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry.**

"His Hogwarts letter!"

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please, Whether we be old and bald, Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling, With some interesting stuff, For now they're bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff, So teach us things worth knowing, Bring back what we've forgot, Just do your best, we'll do the rest, And learn until our brains all rot." James and Sirius sang on the top of their lungs. Whenever they had finished the other three in the room stood up and applauded.

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. **

"He's never received a letter? That's so sad."

"Trust me Lily, he gets more than enough know to make up for the lack of letters then." Ginny smiled.

**Who would. **

"We would!" Sirius and Remus shouted.

**He had no friends, no other relatives - he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. **

"You know you have a sad life when you want to belong to a library just so you can get a letter."

**Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: Mr. H. Potter, The Cupboard under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey.**

"They wrote his cupboard, I love that."

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

"Why would there be a stamp? An owl delivered it."

"Yes but HE doesn't know that does he."

"Oh."

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, **

"Whooooooooo"

**an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. **

"I know Vermin, we did give him a name." James said with mock politeness.

**"What are you doing, checking for letter bombs." He chuckled at his own joke.**

"Hilarious" Remus said in a bored voice.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. **

"No, no, no, no, no!" All the teens shouted.

"He should have opened it in the hall!"

"Or at least hid it in his cupboard for later!"

**He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk. -." "Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!" **

"Shut you pig!"

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"Give him it back!"

"That letter is his birth right!"

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

"Yea, tell him Harry!"

**"Who'd be writing to you." sneered Uncle Vernon, **

"Try the entire wizarding world you whale!"

**shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

"Please tell me he's having a stroke." Sirius spoke hopefully.

"Sirius!"

"Sorry."

"No, stop talking and either plan a prank or read!"

"Right ... well here James, you read I plan." James cleared his throat and began to read.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

"Oh calm down, it's not a bomb."

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"Drama queen!" Lily muttered darkly.

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!" **

"IT'S A BLOODY LETTER!"

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. **

"Must be a bit of a nasty shock for him."

**He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"Atta boy Dinky Duddykins"

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly. "I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine." **

"Yea, you tell him Harry!"

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

"Yea, don't you dare move!"

**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"Wow, he definitely has Lily's temper, that's for sure!" Remus laughed

"Shut up Remus." Lily snapped whilst James and Sirius snickered.

******"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, **

"Get your mitts off my son you whale."

**slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; **

"Harry, Harry, Harry!"

**Dudley won, **

"Awwwww"

**so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"Good idea."

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps.**

"Because we're brilliant!"

**You don't think they're watching the house." "Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Oh please, nobody gives a crap about you. Its Harry their interested in you bloated whale.!" Ginny seethed

**"But what should we do, Vernon. Should we write back. Tell them we don't want -" Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...**

"Yea, because that's going to work."

**"But -" "I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense." **

"Stamp it out of him? I swear to God James if he so much as laid a hand on our son ..."

"I will rip him limb from limb" James finished.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"He fit?"

**"Where's my letter." said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. **

"That's right, don't you give up mate."

**"Who's writing to me." "No one. it was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly.**

"I know he is James son but he is not that stupid."

"Oi!"

**"I have burned it."**

"You idiot!"

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." "SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. **

"Ewwww" Sirius shivered. James leaned over and whispered in Lily's ear,

"Sirius is afraid of spiders, like I've heard him scream like a girl at the sign of a tiny one." Lily giggled.

"Hey you would too if Reg had put one in your food once!"

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"It must not be natural for him."

**"Er - yes, Harry - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.****  
><strong>

"Why?"

**"Why." said Harry.**

"You know James, you and Harry really are a lot alike." Ginny commented. "But he also has a bit of Lily in him."

"REALLY?" the both asked eagerly, Ginny just nodded.

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. **

"Two bedrooms? Harry sleeps in a cupboard and that little monster gets two bedrooms?" Lily said eerily calmly.

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

Lily and Remus looked scandalised at this.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out..." Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, **

"Brat"

**been sick on purpose, **

"I hate that Tuney does that as well, it's disgusting. Bleh."

**kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. **

"Wow they must be really scared."

**Harry was ****thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -'" With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

"Damn"

**"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry.**

**"Dudley - go - just go." Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again. And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"A true Marauder! I'm so proud of my godson."

"Shut up!"

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door - Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive! **

"Not good!"

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face. **

The room burst into laughter.

"Too good!"

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap.****  
><strong>**  
><strong>"Damnit" surprisingly it came from Lily.

**Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

"Three? It would be funny if they just kept sending more and more until he got it."

"Remus, I'd be happier if they just let him have his letter now."

**I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"Cause that's going to work."

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up." "I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon." "Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"_Yes OUR minds work in strange ways." _

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. **

"Twelve? Nice!"

**As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"And now their waiting for the men in the white van with the big butterfly nets."

"What?"

"Muggle thing."

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, **

"Nice."

**rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs **

"Sweet!"

**that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. **

"Hehehe."

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

"Over dramatic much."

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly." Dudley asked Harry in amazement.******

"THE INTIRE WIZARDING WORLD!" the marauders and Lily shouted.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully **

"Like that will stop them!"

**as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today -" Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty ****letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one.**

"Why not just pick them up off the ground."

**"Out! OUT!" Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.**

"I'm warning you Dursley!" James muttered darkley.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. **

"Attractive" Sirius snorted.

**I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway.**

"Okay?"

**Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

"I know I really shouldn't be happy that he hit his son but I'm glad that for once it wasn't Harry."

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake'em off... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"I really feel for the kid, don't you?"

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

"Gross!"

"OH MY MERLIN!"

"What Padfoot?"

"WE MISSED LUNCH I'M HUNGRY! I WANT TO GO EAT! ME NEEDS FOOD!" Sirius cried dramatically rolling on the floor.

"Why don't you four go down after this chapter?"

"Won't you come?"

"No I think I'll hang out here? I missed this place."

"Well if you're sure, James continue reading."

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter. Only I got about an 'undred ****of these at the front desk." **

"A hundred? Whoa he went from no mail to being chased by them."

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: Mr. H. Potter Room 17 Railview Hotel Cokeworth Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

"I'm sure she did."

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear." Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them ****into ****the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

"Guy's gone mad!"

"Just noticed this?"

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he." Dudley asked **

"See even Dudley knows this."

**Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. **

"He knows the days of the week, that's more than I expected."

**"The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television. " **

"Of course that's why, brat"

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. **

"It's his birthday. James it's our son's birthday." Lily looked up at James with big eyes, he put his arm that wasn't holding the book around her and pulled him too her.

"I wish I knew what date it was. Oh Ginny you'd know, when's his birthday?"

"It tells you later. Keep reading." James sighed and continued**.**

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

Everyone growled.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

"That's right keep positive; don't let the muggles get you down."

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. **

"That can't be good, you know that something is up when he is smiling"

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. **

"A rock in the middle of the sea, sounds like Azkaban." The group collectively shuddered at this.

**Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

"That's it prongslet keep your sense of humor."

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

Lily's eyes watered "This is where my son is going to spend his birthday, James we are always going hive Harry the best birthdays any boy is ever going to have. Understand."

"Of course we are, he's our boy."

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. **

"That's not retions!" Sirius shouted as his stomach rumbled.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shrivelled up.**

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh." he said cheerfully.**

"Stop gloating you great baboon's arse!"

"Baboon's arse?"

"Yea, I felt it worked ol' chap."

"Indeed it did sir!" Sirius and Remus teased.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"Don't worry kid, they'll find ya. Hogwarts won't give up."

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. **

Lily shivered at the thought.

**Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second ****room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

James rolled his eyes "Of course she did." Lily just hissed.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. **

"**I feel ya mate."**

"_SIRIUS DONT YOU DARE COMPARE YOUR LIVES! AT LEAST YOU GOT AWAY TO SOMEPLACE YOU'RE LOVED! HARRY HAS HAD NO ONE WHO EVEN REMOTELY CARES ABOUT HIM FOR TEN YEARS!" _Sirius shrunk back in his chair and said nothing else.

**Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

"Don't think like that." Lily said softly

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

"Here's hoping."Remus muttered darkly.

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that. And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise. Was the rock crumbling into the sea.**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten...**

**nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him - three... two...**

"Do it, do it, do it!" Sirius bounced up and down.

**one...**

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!" The three boys shouted whilst Ginny giggled and Lily had a silly grin.

**BOOM.**

"Boom? What went boom?" Lily asked her voice tinged with hysteria.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"Umm that's the end of the chapter." James said awkwardly then turned to Lily. "Lily he'll be fine, there is still the rest of the book which is about him and Ginny says she knows him so nothing can happen to him." Lily looked into his eyes and seemed to break out of her stupor.

"You're right, of course you're right." She took a deep breath, "Sirius, you wanted to go get food?"

"FOOD!" Sirius ran from the room dragging Remus along with him.

Chuckling James and Lily got up to follow. "You sure you don't want to come?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. Take your time."

As soon at the portrait hole was closed, she turned and spoke "Okay you lot, show yourselves."


	6. Hermione Granger

_As soon at the portrait hole was closed, she turned and spoke "Okay you lot, show yourselves."_

One by one three figures appeared, "So which of you want to help me out and be here when they get back. You see I can't be the only one, they will have questions in the next chapter and I can't hold them off. I suck at lying; you all know that, I'm surprised they haven't forced me to tell them everything already. Okay, HELP!"

"Okay one of us will stay here and the other two will hide again. Now there is only one thing left to decide, who stays and gets to meet the famous Marauders face to face?" Hermione teased.

The three looked at each other, and appeared to be having a silent debate that no one but the three of them would be able to decipher.

"Well if you stay Harry they will likely bombard you with questions and you mum would probably be all emotional, your dad would likely be quite emotional as well but he wouldn't show it because he wouldn't want to show weakness to Lily or his friends and Sirius would be even more over the top then he already is and that would leave Remus as the only sane one in the room and that is not conducive to getting on with reading this book and the other six." Ginny said realistically. "As much as I would love Harry to stay with me" She added almost as an afterthought.

"She's right so that's Harry out ..." Harry interrupted

"So I don't get a say?" Ginny and Hermione looked at each other then speaking at the same time. "NO!"

"So anyway, that leaves you and me Ron. What will it be?"

"I'd rather not; I'm an either worse liar than Ginny besides I'm not sure if I can handle it just yet. Later on I'll join, when Harry does."

"Okay, looks like it's you and me Gin."

"Yup. Okay, is it just me or is it completely weird to be older than every one, I mean Harry their your parents and we technically older than them and don't even get me started on Sirius and Remus"

"You know what Ginny, just think of it as getting to know your in laws." Ron snickered as he saw the panic stricken look on her face.

"I didn't think of that, their teenagers, I mean, it's not hit me that they're your parents Harry, what if they don't like me, what if they don't approve, oh Merlin they're going to read the books with me in them, the obsessive crush, the chamber. They're going to hate me after that, I helped Voldemort and almost got me and you killed! Oh Merlin! This is not good." Ginny babbled.

"Ginny sweetheart, it's going to be okay there is no problem, they will love you just like I do, I mean how could they not? Yes they will read about the crush and my dad and Sirius will likely mock you, but my mum will think it's cute and Remus won't say anything. When you helped Riddle you were possessed and it wasn't your fault, they won't blame you for it. Plus you know Sirius and Remus and they love you. So there is no reason to worry, okay?" James tried to rationalise.

Ginny just nodded and sat down, still looking freaked out. The other three just decided to look around, relaxed and waited for the others to return from lunch.

**HPHPHP**

"So what does everyone think of the books and Ginny?" Remus asked when they entered the kitchens and sat down.

"To be quite honest this whole thing is freaking me out, in a good way – but freaking me out all the same." Lily stated. "I mean, I just found out I marry James and have a son. I also die young apparently. It is a lot of information to receive in one morning."

"Well I personally can't wait till Harry gets to Hogwarts and see what kind of trouble he gets himself into" Sirius barked a laugh, successfully breaking the silence and tension that had followed Lily's statement.

"He's going to be exactly like his father and godfather isn't he?"

"YES" The two named men shouted.

The four teens lapsed into a comfortable silence while eating when all of a sudden Remus spoke "I wonder why Worm tale wasn't allowed to read with us."

"Well to start with he's not here."

"Ino but the letter said that even if he was here he wasn't to read it remember?" The teens just looked at each other and shrugged. They'd ask Ginny when they were done.

When they entered the Gryffindor common room they noticed that there was now a second girl with Ginny. This girl was taller around the same height as Lily, with brown wavy hair. She was also petite and pretty, but she unlike Ginny had a couple of obvious flaws, one being a scar on her neck and another being what looked to be the beginning of a scar but that was covered up by her long sleeve t-shirt. This new girl and Ginny were sitting staring at the fire with uneasy expressions but looked up and adapted cheerful expressions as they noticed the teens from the past.

"Hello, I don't believe you have read about me yet. My name's Hermione Granger." The new girl said with an air of confidence about her. "It's a pleasure to meet the famous Marauders and Lily Evans." She finished with a smile. She looked to be older than Ginny but not by much.

"And you are?" Sirius asked not being able to think of any Grangers.

"One of Harrys best friends, I went to school with him and the reason you can't think of any of my relatives is that I'm muggleborn. I will answer one question each, provided that I find that it will not be answered in this or one next books and then we will continue reading, okay" She said in a very bossy tone that had the teens from the past looking stunned at her for a moment. James was the first to recover.

"umm, okay. Who has a question?"

"I do." Lily was the first to respond cutting across Sirius who looked as though he was just about to ask a question himself. "Does Harry end up happy in the end or at least at piece?"

"I'm not sure of those are the words I would use, he goes through a lot but I believe that he is happy now or at least as happy as is possible for him to be." This seemed to mollify Lily though she looked anxious at the fact that Hermione said that he went through a lot. But at least in the end he is okay.

"Me next!" Sirius bellowed "Do you and Harry ever you know, hook up?" he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

Hermione looked repulsed at the thought and Ginny's lips thinned at this but Sirius and James didn't seem to notice, but Remus and Lily sure did and smirked at each other sensing that Ginny had a thing for Harry. "We most certainly did not Sirius Black! Harry is my best friend and my brother, its incest. I can't even." Hermione replied indignantly fixing him with a glare that could rival McGonagall. "James?"

"Do the Dursleys ever get better?" he asked wishfully.

"Well Dudley does but not until Harrys last year at school, I know, we wish they had got better ourselves." Hermione indicated herself and Hermione. "They did treat him dreadfully."

"Remus?"

"Can I save mine for another?"

"Of course, now who is reading?"

"You are."

"Fine hand the book here." She cleared her throat and began to read.

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**

**HPHPHP**

**Rightio, I'm sorry I haven updated in a while but I did get it done by the end of the week and there might be another chapter really soon as I am currently in bed with a bad head cold. **

**As per usual I only own the idea, the characters and everyone that you recognise is property of J.K. Rowling.**

**Please review. I love everybody who reviews.**

**Right, down to my last order of business. I'm going to start a second story as well, I sometimes get stuck on this one and have another story going around in my head. So I figure I might as well let you read it. In this story Teddy, James, Albus, Lily, Rose and Hugo accidently get sent back in time to the marauders era. Let me know what you think but I will defiantly post at least one chapter of it at some point to see how it goes down.**

**Thank you, lots of love to all my readers. **


	7. The keeper of Keys

Hey sorry I haven't updated, I had some family issues this week and that meant I haven't been in a state to write, I do apologise.

**HPHPHP**

**THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS. **Hermione read.

"Who's that" asked Sirius.

"If you would let me read you would find out" Hermione snapped causing Sirius to pout magnificently.

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"That boy really is a genius isn't me." Remus muttered.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands –**

"He brought a GUN. What in the name of Merlin does he think he's playing at!" this surprisingly came from Sirius, when he noticed the others incredulous look he felt the need to defend himself.

"What I took Muggle Studies"

"Yes but you actually paid attention?"

"I pay attention to the cool things!"

"Whatever."

**- now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"Hmph" Lily pouted

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

"Lot of good that will do him against a wizard." Ginny laughed. She was feeling more comfortable with Hermione beside her.

**T****here was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH****!**

"Yea, break down the door and crush those bullying gits." James cheered. 

"James!"

"Sorry Lils."

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

All the Marauders cheered, even Remus. Who was too thrilled that Harry was getting out of there to hold himself back.

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. **

"Hargid" James and Sirius shouted at the same time.

"You can't possibly know that!"

"A giant of a man. Lily who else could it be?"

**His face was almost completely hidden by a long, sha****ggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"That's actually a really good description of him, isn't it?"

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, an****d fitted it easily back into its frame. **

"Yes respect the building Hagrid."

**The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

"The first time you see him, he really can be intimidating." Remus nodded.

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? **

Everyone laughed at this "that is just so typical Hagrid, got to love him." Hermione giggled.

**It's not been an easy journey..."**

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with**** fear.**

"Good, stupid idiots, FEAR HAGRID!" Sirius shouted.

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger****.**

"He really is a great lump isn't he, good for nothing and all that."

"Sirius shut up, you're just rambling know."

"Make me." And with that Lily silenced him, now he was just opening and closing his mouth silently, looking scarily like a fish.

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

"The fact that they could both fit shows just how wide the whale is."

"You know I think whale might be too small to describe him." Hermione sighed.

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

Lily smiled sadly at this, "He really does, you know." Ginny said kindly.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"Right. That's going to have his running screaming. Shut up Dursley, no one wants to hear what you think!"

**"Ah,**** shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," **

"Hear, hear!"

**said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

"Thank Merlin I did not like him having that gun" Sirius sighed, relieved. Receiving odd looks from everyone in the room, it wasn't normal for him to be this serious. They put it down to the fact that he was still in shock about Lily and James' murders.

**Uncle Vernon ma****de another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

**"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

"As long as he didn't bake it himself that is."

**From an ****inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

"What's with all the green in this book?" Remus mused.

"Maybe he thought it would match his eyes?"

"That must be it."

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say**** thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"What good manors he's got." Sirius scoffed.

"Well what do you expect, the Dursleys brought him up" Ginny snapped. Sirius cowered away from the petite girls glare.

"Ginny, leave him be. He didn't mean anything by it you know that." Hermione scolded

"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly at Sirius, "reflex reaction."

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

The marauders all cheered.

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

"I hate when he does that, I swear he doesn't realise his own size."

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

Everyone chuckled at this. "Oh, Hagrid."

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags ****in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped m****ugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. **

"How many pockets are in that coat?"

Hermione smiled "The whole coat is made of pockets"

"Sweet!"

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. **

"Ah, the one thing Hagrid can cook well. Recon if we go visit him he will make us some." Sirius asked hopefully.

"Yea, we'll have to go see him soon."

**Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"Like he was going to give him anthing!"

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

"Well said, good chap" Remus said in his most pompous voice.

**He passed the**** sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

"See there are his manors, he was in shock before."

"It's amazing he has any, the Dursleys don't even teach Dinky Duddikins manors."

**The ****giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course****.**

"No" everyone sighed sadly.

**"Er - no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"It's not you who should be sorry, Harry."

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't eve****n know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

"Hagrid's not going to like that." Sirius smiled gleefully.

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole ****hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

"Harry's not going to like that." Hermione said shaking her head.

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, an****d his marks weren't bad.**

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

"If I didn't know better, I'd say he was doing this to see if he could get Hagrid to kill the Dursleys" James chuckled.

**Hagrid looked as if he was abo****ut to explode.**

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." **

"I wish I could have seen that."

**Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous****."**

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

"Yea, for dying."

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found**** his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"Right Dursley, right know you are lucky you're not dead. Hagrid is fiercely loyal and protective."

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage****.**

"Wow, I've never seen him that angry. His Dursley values his life at all, he wont speak another word."

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

"They're ignorant prats, what did you expect Hagrid."

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

"Tell him. Tell him. Tell him. Tell him" Sirius chanted

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

"TELL HIM. TELL HIM. TELL HIM. TELL HIM."Remus joined the chanting.

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."**

"A tad anticlimactic, but at least he knows now."

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard****.**

**"- a what?" gasped Harry.**

"It is kind of hard to believe when you're first told." Lily said. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"I never thought what it must be like for muggleborns when they get their letters."

"We don't just get letters, one of the members of staff comes to give it to us."

"Really, who came to you?" James asked earnestly

"McGonagall"

"Wow, I can't imagine her outside of Hogwarts."

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh b****e? **

"THANKS HAGRID!"

**An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"Yes, yes it is indeed."

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCH****OOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Ho****gwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

**Deputy Headmistress**

"That's the same as mine!"

"Well you are both Mr Potter."

**Questions e****xploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"That's his first question?"

"Well, it is the last thing he read."

"Fair enough."

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl –**

"Poor owl."

**- a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

"I can hardly read it the right way up."

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid**

"Short and sweet!"

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its**** beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

"It is to us."

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that mom****ent, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

"You would think he would realise it is futile to argue now."

"Yes well he is not exactly the brightest now is he."

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

"Yea!"

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore ****we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

"Stamp it out," James said in a deadly calm voice. "If you hit my boy I swear, I will KILL you."

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew!**

"And here we go." Lily shrunk down in her seat, not wanting to hear what Petunia was going to say about her."

**Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

"Lily is not dratted!" James bellowd at the same time that Remus yelled. "She's a better person than you could ever hope to be!"

**Oh, she got a letter just like**** that and disappeared off to that-that school-and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats.**

"Stop exaggerating Petunia!"

**I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"No they were proud of Lily, there's a difference!" Sirius spat.

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"That's likely because she has, mum and dad wont let her say any of it to me." Lily shook her head. Everyone else in the room gave her pitying looks.

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had ****you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"THAT'S HOW SHE TOLD HIM THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW WE DIED!" Lily exploded.

"I'm going to kill your sister." Sirius stated through gritted teeth. "a little sensitivity would go a long way. She just told you your parents were murdered, I mean come on!"

"You actually know the meaning of sensitivity do you?" Ginny asked mockingly.

"I do, doesn't mean that I use it though … ever."

Everyone snorted at this "Got that one right."

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blo****wn up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

"Well, Hagrid's not going to take that well." James snorted

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? **

"It couldn't!"

**It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his o****wn story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

"Every kid? Did you know about him?" Lily asked the two girls from the future.

"Well, I'm muggle born so I didn't but I had heard of him before I got to Hogwarts."

"I'd heard of him." Ginny nodded.

"A bit of an understatement there Gin"

"SHUT IT" everyone watched the exchange with bemused looks on their faces.

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"He's just realised he's going to have to tell him."

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumble****dore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone 3 s gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

"Poor Hagrid, he didn't expect this."

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

"Can't he just throw the couch? Much more effective"

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

"Yea well we want to know!"

"Sirius, you will find out everything by the end of the books and if you don't you can ask us questions, okay?" Hermione reasoned.

"Fine!" then he mumbled "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - ****but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"**

**"Who? "**

"He's not going to say it, we've been trying to get him to say it for years. He wont."

"Well I don't blame him, it must be really scary for him to think about." Ginny said sympathetically.

"Why would it be any harder for him?" Lily asked confused. Ginny's eyes got as round as saucers, realising she had said too much.

"Umm, you – agh – find out in the next – ah – book."

"Okay." James had his eyebrows raised.

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is ****difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."**

"Come on Hagrid, he's got to hear it at least once before he goes to Hogwarts."

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort. "**

"Wow pup got him to say it." Sirius said impressed.

"Pup?" Ginny asked

"Well he's my godson son. He gets a petname, and pup works perfectly."

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers."**

"I never under stood why, he treats them like crap." Sirius said baffled.

"Power" Hermione and Ginny answered darkly.

"**Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway."**

"Why don't I like the sound of that?"

"Of what?"

"Not just them, anyway. It makes it sound that he will"

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em."**

"Blunt and to the point. Typical Hagrid."

**An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose,**

Lily let out a wimper.

**or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, **

"Marline!" Lily gasped for her best friend.

**the Bones, **

"All them?"

"No there's a Susan bone in our year."

**the Prewetts –**

"Gideon and Fabian!"

**- an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

"Thank Merlin for that!"

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, **

"He survived the avada kedavra? That's not possible!" Remus muttered.

"Harry's the exception to many rule." Ginny smirked.

**more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

Everyone shuddered at this, people form the past, people form the future at the memory.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

"I'm still not happy about that." Lily mumbled.

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost ****forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

"Hit him Hagrid, knock him out!"

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, **

"There's nothing strange about him!" all the readers shouted.

**probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, **

"James and Lily aren't weirdos!"

**no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion –**

"NO IT'S NOT!"

"You mark my words Dursley, I'm gonna get you!"

**- asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types –**

Sirius and Remus were both growling now.

**- just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning y****ou, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "**

"Go on Hagrid, stab him!" This, surprisingly, came from Remus.

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent****.**

"Damn!"

**That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

"I really think he forget how big he is sometimes." James chuckled.

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who****?"**

"Harry, don't be afraid of the name."

"Don't worry, he does." Hermione placated "he just says You-Know-Who when he knows it will upset the person he's talking to and he needs them to listen to him."

"Oh, good."

**Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. **

"So he's not dead?"

**Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. **

"Funny he should say that." Ginny giggled causing Hermione to join.

The people from the past just gave them questioning looks, but Hermione just waved for him to continue.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trance****s. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"Well that gives some relief. At least he has no powers."

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on.**

"Wait, so Harry's famous for killing someone who isn't even dead. Interesting.

**'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does –**

"Bet Dumbledore does."

**- but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

"That's why he is really famous, he stopped him." Hermione started.

"Even if it was indefinitely!" Ginny finished.

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? **

"He's not going to believe it is he?"

_Harry, who was currently under his invisibility cloak, was itching to get out and talk to his parents as well as Sirius and Remus. He couldn't stand it, he knows Hermione and Ginny said no but he couldn't just hide. This was his family, one he had never met before. Even though he knew Sirius and Remus and loved them, he wanted to know them when they hadn't spent 12 years in Azkaban or thinking one of their best friends killed their other three best friends and were totally alone. He wanted to know the real them the ones without the years of bitterness and brooding._

_This was his chance to know them, so he did something he knew he would get in trouble for later._

"No I didn't."

Six head suddenly snapped to look at him. Every pair of eyes widened, the two from the future narrowed their eyes at him after the initial shock wore off, Harry skilfully avoided their glares.

The eyes from the past were still staring in a stat of shock at man in the corner of the room. Slowly Remus, Sirius and Lily started looking from the man in the corner to James who was like a statue, frozen still. They were identical except for the eyes, he had Lily's eyes. There was no denying it he was their son.

Lily was the first to break from her stupor. Like lightening she was hugging him.

"Hi mum." He chuckled.

"That sound weird coming form someone older than you." Sirius barked a laugh. Harry turned around to face the man who would become like a father to him and beamed brightly at him, he was the one he missed the most, he had never really known his parents and it was hard to miss someone you never knew. Sirius though, he had been like a cross between a brother and a father. He still hadn't been able to move on from that pain.

"Hey Sirius." He walked over and gave him a huge hug, before turning to Remus and doing the same. James was still staring at him frozen, 'I knew the book said he looked like me but wow, we could be twins. Well except the eyes, he has Lily's eyes, her beautiful eyes. And now I'm staring great, I look like a freak.'

James cleared his throat awkwardly. "Hey, I ..." he trailed off.

"Feel like you're looking in the mirror? I know the feeling." James strode forward enveloping his son in a hug.

"It's brilliant to met you."

"You too, you have no idea how much I've wanted to met you all." There was two heart beats silence before the questions came in one go.

"What age are you?"

"Do you ever get away from the Dursleys?"

"Where are me and Moony?"

"Moony and I Padfoot."

"Did you do well at Hogwarts?"

"Are you a prankster?"

"Are you married?"

"Do you have any children?" and many more, those were the only ones that Harry caught.

"Wow, wow, wow, okay I only caught some of them and I will answer them. But that is it, I'm going to follow the same code of conduct as my friends here." He smiled and the two ladies, who despite being disgruntled at the fact that Harry had ignored them, were smiling at his reunion with his family.

"So 20, yes, it's in the books later, I got okay grades, I don't have to look for trouble it finds me, I'm engaged and technically no I don't have any children but I do have a Godson who stays with me a couple of nights a week."

"Wow, okay." Sirius said looking confused.

"So let's continue reading shall we?" Hermione asked while the people from the past tried to work out his answers. Lily sat down next to Harry and James next to Lily.

**How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? **

The teens from the past growled at the mention of the cupboard.

**If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

"It is truly unfortunate that it doesn't work that way." Remus said thoughtfully.

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled****.**

"Yea it is pretty funny, I mean you didn't even believe you were a wizard."

"I was 11 and abused. It was hard to think positively."

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their**** reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"That was brilliant!"

"Thanks"

**Ha****rry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

"Of course he was you're Harry Potter."

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"Great!" Harry muttered sarcastically.

"You don't like being famous?" James asked, he always thought that being famous would be brilliant.

"No, I prefer for people to see me as more than just a scar." All the people of the past now noticed a lightening shaped scar peeking out from under his fringe. They quickly looked away though as he had made it clear that he didn't like people looking at his scar.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"Oh, he's still there?"

**"Haven'****t I told you he's not going?" he hissed.**

"Right and good luck stopping him."

**"He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. **

"Hear, hear!" Ginny and Hermione giggled at the Marauders antics.

**"Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL To TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Uh oh"

"Hagrid loves Dumbledore."

"This is going to be good."

"Yes, yes it is," Harry smiled.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid s****eized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"**

"You really shouldn't."

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley **

"Ohhhh its getting good." Sirius rubbed his hands menacingly.

**there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

"Brilliant! Brilliant Hagrid. Remind me to give him a present next time I see him."

"Will do!"

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one las****t terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

"GOODBYE!"

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, **

"Don't feel bad Hagrid, they don't deserve your pity!"

**"but ****it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

"Truer words were never spoken hagrid."

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was all****owed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job**

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry****.**

"He was expelled."

"Yea, I know that now."

"Just making sure." James smiled.

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." "Why were you expelled?"**

"HARRY! That was rude." Lily scolded, Ginny and Hermione stifled a laugh.

"And besides he won't tell anyone" Sirius huffed. Harry just smiled knowingly.

"Do YOU know?" Remus asked incredulously, Harry merely smirked and shook his head.

"Maybe."

"Meanie!"

"How do you get him to tell you?" Lily asked sweetly, dying to find out herself. Again Harry simple smirked and shook his head.

"At least you're a equal opportunity meanie." Sirius pouted.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta**** get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets.****"**

"Mice in the pockets? That's just gross."

"So Harry, tell us about your fiancée and Godson." Remus asked.

"Well my fiancée is the most beautiful woman in the world." He started, luckily no one from the past noticed Ginny blush bright red. "She is my world; I love her more than anything else in the world. Well anything but my Godson, if I didn't have anything else in the world but had those two, I'd be happy with my life. My Godson, Teddy, is 3 and one of the smartest kids I have ever seen. He's a metamorphagus but when he sleeps he looks exactly like his father." He carefully didn't give away any more detail on that.

"Who's his father?"

"Not saying."

"Mother?"

"Nymphadora Tonks." Ginny smiled, Harry shot her a glare. "Sorry!"

"My little cousin? Aw recon you're the father Moony?"

"Shut up Sirius."

"What? What's so funny?"

"Dora has a little crush on Remus. She followed him around like a little puppy last time we babysat." Remus blushed, Harry, Hermione and Ginny attempted not to burst out laughing.

"Well you'll be able to meet him later, we have a friend bringing him later."

**HPHPHP**

Hey, I am so sorry that I took so long to update. Like I said family issues that made me not want to write, but I am back into the swing of things now and I hope to have another update soon.

Thank you for all the lovely comments, I love you all so much and please keep them coming.

xoxo


	8. HIATUS

Please don't hate me! But I think I'm going to go on a hiatus, I've got kind of board of this storyline.

But I'm going to start a new characters read the books story. If you are at all interested in what that would in tale message me and I'll let you know what it's about. I'm so so sorry!

But let me know if you want more stories from me. Please read my new story when I put it up. Again, I'm so, so sorry!


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